Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.

Despite recent improvements in molecular techniques, biological knowledge remains incomplete. Any theorizing about living systems is therefore necessarily based on the use of heterogeneous and partial information. Much current research has focused successfully on the qualitative behaviors of macromo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jérémie Bourdon, Damien Eveillard, Anne Siegel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011-09-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002157&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850189823489343488
author Jérémie Bourdon
Damien Eveillard
Anne Siegel
author_facet Jérémie Bourdon
Damien Eveillard
Anne Siegel
author_sort Jérémie Bourdon
collection DOAJ
description Despite recent improvements in molecular techniques, biological knowledge remains incomplete. Any theorizing about living systems is therefore necessarily based on the use of heterogeneous and partial information. Much current research has focused successfully on the qualitative behaviors of macromolecular networks. Nonetheless, it is not capable of taking into account available quantitative information such as time-series protein concentration variations. The present work proposes a probabilistic modeling framework that integrates both kinds of information. Average case analysis methods are used in combination with Markov chains to link qualitative information about transcriptional regulations to quantitative information about protein concentrations. The approach is illustrated by modeling the carbon starvation response in Escherichia coli. It accurately predicts the quantitative time-series evolution of several protein concentrations using only knowledge of discrete gene interactions and a small number of quantitative observations on a single protein concentration. From this, the modeling technique also derives a ranking of interactions with respect to their importance during the experiment considered. Such a classification is confirmed by the literature. Therefore, our method is principally novel in that it allows (i) a hybrid model that integrates both qualitative discrete model and quantities to be built, even using a small amount of quantitative information, (ii) new quantitative predictions to be derived, (iii) the robustness and relevance of interactions with respect to phenotypic criteria to be precisely quantified, and (iv) the key features of the model to be extracted that can be used as a guidance to design future experiments.
format Article
id doaj-art-7439fc2eea3d4f42908ae0327f2a58eb
institution OA Journals
issn 1553-734X
1553-7358
language English
publishDate 2011-09-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Computational Biology
spelling doaj-art-7439fc2eea3d4f42908ae0327f2a58eb2025-08-20T02:15:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582011-09-0179e100215710.1371/journal.pcbi.1002157Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.Jérémie BourdonDamien EveillardAnne SiegelDespite recent improvements in molecular techniques, biological knowledge remains incomplete. Any theorizing about living systems is therefore necessarily based on the use of heterogeneous and partial information. Much current research has focused successfully on the qualitative behaviors of macromolecular networks. Nonetheless, it is not capable of taking into account available quantitative information such as time-series protein concentration variations. The present work proposes a probabilistic modeling framework that integrates both kinds of information. Average case analysis methods are used in combination with Markov chains to link qualitative information about transcriptional regulations to quantitative information about protein concentrations. The approach is illustrated by modeling the carbon starvation response in Escherichia coli. It accurately predicts the quantitative time-series evolution of several protein concentrations using only knowledge of discrete gene interactions and a small number of quantitative observations on a single protein concentration. From this, the modeling technique also derives a ranking of interactions with respect to their importance during the experiment considered. Such a classification is confirmed by the literature. Therefore, our method is principally novel in that it allows (i) a hybrid model that integrates both qualitative discrete model and quantities to be built, even using a small amount of quantitative information, (ii) new quantitative predictions to be derived, (iii) the robustness and relevance of interactions with respect to phenotypic criteria to be precisely quantified, and (iv) the key features of the model to be extracted that can be used as a guidance to design future experiments.https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002157&type=printable
spellingShingle Jérémie Bourdon
Damien Eveillard
Anne Siegel
Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
PLoS Computational Biology
title Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
title_full Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
title_fullStr Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
title_full_unstemmed Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
title_short Integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network.
title_sort integrating quantitative knowledge into a qualitative gene regulatory network
url https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002157&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT jeremiebourdon integratingquantitativeknowledgeintoaqualitativegeneregulatorynetwork
AT damieneveillard integratingquantitativeknowledgeintoaqualitativegeneregulatorynetwork
AT annesiegel integratingquantitativeknowledgeintoaqualitativegeneregulatorynetwork